Advancing global business services maturity

A point of view series for leaders in global business services facing increasingly complex challenges.

Service-delivery organizations that embrace the global business services (GBS) model and then climb the ladder toward greater performance maturity can achieve benefits that range from low hanging-fruit efficiencies to transactional and analytical capabilities that add long-term, strategic value to the business.

Read the papers below from our global business services center of excellence to explore ways to advance your organization’s maturity.

End-to-end process management

Global, end-to-end process ownership is one of the most critical enablers of global business services success. When a single global owner is in charge of each process, companies can gain the benefits of end-to-end management, even in complex environments that include shared services, outsourcing, and retained organization operations.

Maturity model

What to get right on the journey: Operational cost reductions remain a high priority for GBS organizations, but increasingly they are viewed as a given. Delivering measurable business value and innovation are goals receiving more and more emphasis.

Talent management

Global business services organizations feel the talent challenge expecially acutely. As the demand for GBS grows, and the nature of its services moves from transactional to insight-driven and analytical, the skills needed are harder to find in the marketplace, and harder to scale.

Governance

Governance has always been critical to realizing the benefits of alternative service delivery, such as shared services and outsourcing, and its even more important today in an integrated GBS model. The benefits of governance done well are significant and a necessity for driving GBS maturity.

Technology integration

Information technology (IT) is a key enabler of global business services success and maturity. While IT is almost never at the front end of GBS, GBS is destined to underachieve, or even fail, unless the IT component is enabled and integrated across the enterprise.

Master data management

Accurate and accessible master data is a foundational element in any global business services effort. With integrity in master data, a GBS organization can maintain a clear view of its operations and drive measurable benefits.

Robotic process automation

As more tasks become automated, location strategies will become much less important. This will impact retained organizations, shared services and third-party outsourcing. Greater profitability and new unexploited potential will be found through digitization and automation.

Value drivers

The true value of GBS lies in its potential to deliver top-line business value, not just cost savings. A value-based point of view requires changing both the philosophical and operational approaches for using shared services and outsourcing.